Go Motorboard 2000X and 2000XR
When I saw the Go Motorboard 2000X on a website after searching for electric scooters, I was excited. It looked brilliant: Basically the size of a two wheel kick scooter, it incorporates two counter-rotating electric motors that directly turn the rear wheel. The drive train and electronics are below the board, so you don’t see anything.
I found a dealership in town, and took one for a test ride. It passed my “train station to work†test, so I bought it. The ride was really fun—about 15 miles per hour, moderate climbing ability, and it easily carries my 240 pounds.
It made the rated four to five miles (but just barely) though it did have disappointing hill-climbing ability. Basically, as with any electric vehicle, climbing hills dramatically increases the amount of energy you’ll use up, and tackling even a moderate hill on battery alone will kill the battery and leave you pushing. The wheels are wear members and will eventually have to be replaced at a cost of $20 per each. The sides of the rear wheel are impacted by the motors and slowly worn away through normal use, although I’ve been on my board for six months and have yet to swap the rear wheel. You can simply switch the front and rear wheels when the rear wheel is too worn. You cannot ride the scooter through water, both because it’s an electrical device and because water will cause the motors to slip against the rear wheel and grind notches into it. I tested it, it’s true, don’t do it.
Because it’s a scooter, you’re free to kick along with it to save energy and extend range. Complimentary kicking is basically mandatory when going uphill, and it’s not necessary at any other time except to push off (the motors don’t engage until the scooter is already moving faster than 3mph for safety reasons).
At 21lbs., the scooter is a bit heavy but it folds up and can be carried with you easily on a bus or on the train without impeding anyone else. It fits in a standard bat bag as well, which will allow you to disguise it and carry it over your shoulder. The scooter is extremely rugged—I’ve had no issues or problems with the board mechanically. The NiMH charger did go out on me, and Go replaced it immediately no questions asked. When Go released the 2000XR, which is basically the same as the 2000X but with a lithium ion battery based on the A123 cell rather than a NiMH battery, I was bummed—I couldn’t justify getting another board just for better battery life. Then I found out that Go offered an upgrade, so I shipped in my board, paid $350, and they upgraded my existing board to Lithium Ion, added shock absorbing foam, and shipped it back with a new charger. I sold the old battery and charger on Ebay for about $100 to defray the costs.
The new battery is great—it goes about twice as far and does have somewhat better hill climbing capability, although not enough to really say that you can take the scooter straight up a long hill—you’ll still need to kick. Besides the improved range, the board now weighs 5 lbs. less than it did due to the lighter weight of the new battery chemistry.
The Go Motorboard is the perfect “last mile†solution for using public transit like busses and light rail. It folds up to an inconspicuous and easily carried size, it’s powerful and has a long lasting battery, and it works even for those up to its rated capacity of 250 pounds. I toss it in my trunk so I don’t have to worry about how far away I’m parking downtown. With a bat bag, I can carry the charger with me and charge it back up at work for the trip home. Unless you’ve got significant hills between you and your destination, I highly recommend it.
At $699, you’ll definitely be able to find a cheaper scooter, but there is no better scooter available, and at today’s gas prices, you only have to eliminate one car trip per work day for a year to pay for it in gas savings and vehicle maintenance (presuming a 75 cent per mile total cost of vehicle use average as per Edmunds vehicle TCO calculator and 200 four-mile trips in a year).
I have 2000 and 1500 too.. how did you get them to upgrade your 2000 to XR.. it is not an option on their website… is it because you just bought the scooter and you have a website? 🙂
Comment by Louis — September 18, 2007 @ 8:12 am
No one ever called me back… won’t buy motorboard product anymore.
Comment by Louis — October 2, 2007 @ 11:17 am
They now offering the upgrade for 450 plus my own shipping.. i said what!!! Never again… the new owner is simply a bloodsucker and he ain’t put any money into the development. It is just a marketing guy
Comment by Stephane Amate — October 29, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
I totally agreed that this product is not worth the $800 price tag. $300 is more realistic. Remember this made in China toy cannot be used in the rain, weak in climbing steep hills and very bumpy on uneven roads or even dangerous to ride on due to its small plastic wheels. Replacing the batteries cost more then $200 too.This item is a joke!
Comment by Gregg — November 17, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
Louis–I sent their support email address a query about upgrading, and they told me what to do. If they’ve upped the price of the upgrade that’s a shame but a business reality I’m sure. It’s still $250 of retained value, which is better than nothing.
Comment by Matthew — November 18, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
I am happy with my 2000X but got extremely upset when I figured there is no way to order a new Litium ion battery and do the upgrade myself. I have to send it back and pay a lot of money. In my case since I am on the other side of the planet, it is impossible to send it back (delivery would cost more than the whole thing) and they did not give me any other alternative.
You gotta have nice, flat roads, otherwise you can not ride it, but it works perfectly fine in urban traffic, large cities like mine (Budapest), especially in Germany (they have the best roads ever.) I will probably wait for the next generation that will have even better battery and durability (I hope they will figure out something to make it waterproof.)
Comment by Ayac — January 4, 2008 @ 2:14 am
I’m really considering buying the Motorboard 2000x opposed to the XR, after all it is MUCH cheaper. Do u all recommend that I go for the older version ‘2000x?’ or is the upgrade worth the 5 billion extra dolars?:|
Comment by Aaron-Mark — March 24, 2008 @ 12:05 am
where in the hell do I buy a replacement rear tire for the Go Motorboard 2000x ?
if you know, please email me with the site, thanks so much.
dale.dreher@sbcglobal.net
Comment by Dale Dreher — April 19, 2008 @ 11:23 am
Roth Motors is a joke! My board 2000x, is under warranty and the charger stopped working…I called, emailed and tried to contact them SEVERAL times for over a week. I finally gave up and tried to fix the charger myself… of course I am no technician, so I failed…probably made it worse. I am going to report them to the Better Business Bureau. I heard that they rarely if EVER get back to their customers.
Comment by Aaron-Mark — April 20, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
I too have the same problem. The charger head snapped after less then 3 months. Contacted Rothmotors 5 to 6 times via email as they don’t provide any tel. contact. Only received auto replies promising to get back. It’s more then a month now. Nothing from them. Bought a new charger on Ebay instead. I wouldn’t recommend buying another go motorboard as the warranty is non existance. Your investment of newly priced $800 or $1000 go motorboard is precarious. Be forewarned!
Comment by Greg — July 1, 2008 @ 8:01 pm
I’ve used the 2000x for about a year and it did well until recently when the charger began to work intermittently. The good news is, that the connector is a generic three pronged part that can be obtained anywhere. And I will just find a transformer that functions within the same parameters and adapt it to that. Finally, once these nimh batteries are done, I will build a battery pack with long D cells that can provide up to 14amps capacity. You can find most of this equipment at allbattery.com. No I do not have any affiliation with them, I just like their prices and their products. I had a feeling that they would not stand behind their products, but I followed through with the purchase, because I know how to repair the peripheral components. Things like internal electronics usually do not fail unless they are abused, so I do not foresee any problems with them.
Comment by Mike — August 4, 2008 @ 3:55 am
The electronics are crap, the design with no waterproofing/dust proofing is terrible, Even the addition of clear silcone around gap between head holding motors and boady of board is a simple fix for most dirt and dust yet its not done in the factory. I am an everyday user of a XR in Sydney Australia. I have gone through 2 control boards (yes once due to damp conditions) but second just dust. I only ride on sunny days and clean paths (since first incident). My friend who is an electronics engineer tells me they should have an magnetic pickup on motor dive shaft and then place electronics in waterproof housing…..he recons their desing in crap and regenerative breaking should be standard and the programing is easy……HOPE YOUR LISTENING ROTH…..fix up these items and you would have a great product.
Comment by Andrew — September 8, 2008 @ 7:13 am
Cool concept, but just doesn’t work well. Wore down the rear wheel on the first day of riding. They need a transmission that is more durable than directly squeezing the rear wheel, a small chain, belt or even cog drive on the hub.
Comment by scooter — September 15, 2008 @ 9:47 am
well, I’ve been riding mine routinely for 18 months now. I had it upgraded to an XR before Go was sold to Roth, and although the new battery blew on my first ride, they replaced it under warranty immediately. I’ve not yet had to change the rear wheel, but it shows signs of wear so I will swap it with the front soon.
I haven’t had any contact with the company since they were bought, but it does seem from comments that the new owners are simply trying to suck the company dry, which is a shame given what a neat idea this is. I think it’s time for them to get some competition.
The rear wheel drive assembly could be dramatically improved for wear and wet weather by casting the wheels with gear teeth and using gears on the motor shafts. Just a thought.
Comment by matthew — September 15, 2008 @ 10:01 am
I bought a 2000XR about a month ago (those dummies sent me the 2000XRplus by accident, but I won’t complain). So far, while I have found a few items which need addressing I am somewhat of an electronics-tinkerer and have made some mods myself. These would be good things to address in future models, although I would probably just build a new one myself from scratch for much less. Here they are:
LED headlights – C’mon seriously, LED lights are about 99 cents a-piece and Roth Motors didn’t think to add a couple forward-facing white ones. Major lack of foresight. So I added them myself by adding a switch in the throttle between the positive line and a seemingly unused wire in the control cable (the white wire marked ‘NC’ which I believe means ‘no connection’). Don’t drain the power from the positive source in the controller (that makes it unhappy), BUT use the positive voltage to drive a transistor and keep the LEDs isolated on their own power (like a 9V or a few AAA batts inside the board). Obviously, you could run them off the main battery, but it’s friggin huge and would probably fry them without a current/voltage regulator. I’m still working on brake lights (it’s corny, I know).
Weatherproofing the rear seal – It’s obvious that water can enter the electronics compartment when you splash through something, so I ran a bead of polyether sealant between the case housing and the ‘transmission’ piece (the motor-mounted metal plate). I also sealed the upper visible gap behind the wooden board and ran a bead around the motor shafts where they are exposed to the wheel. While I still don’t recommend going through water, now your electronics won’t short out if you do!
Motor mounting – If you ever remove one of the motors (the chopper side, like I did), be aware that it may not stay tight when you put it back together. I had a whole week of daily re-tightening on the left motor, so I jammed a little slab of post-it notes and super glued them between the two motors to keep them spaced apart. Roth Motors should really be using a more serious motor mount (instead of this two-screw crap) because the rear takes a major whacking on sidewalks or bumps. Super-glue the motor to the metal mounting if you must, it’ll just take a small hammer whack to remove it later.
As for the tires, I’m still looking for an alternative material that won’t lose chunks of wheel on gravel – BUT if you just want to fill-in the cracks and splits I HIGHLY recommend M-1 Polyether sealant/adhesive from bestmaterials.com. I bought black/gray sealant, but apparently they now have a beige colored version of the same product which probably looks much better.
So, in short I would NOT recommend this product to someone who can’t handle getting their hands dirty or digging into electronics. I almost kinda like the fact that it’s not perfect, it gives me something to futz with…. but just ‘almost’. ‘Perfect’ would be nice.
It also helps that they sent me an upgraded board by accident. Takes a bit of the edge off when I find something awry.
Comment by Jacob Munoz — October 16, 2008 @ 10:06 am
I use a 2000XR. I tested it full speed on a bike track and the battery died at 7 miles, with a cruising speed of 12 mph and sometimes 14 mph. In my day to day use I’ve gotten it to 8 1/2 miles running at half speed or slower. The slower speed is sometimes inconsistent, though this may be from the usual problems with variable electronic adjusters and computers. It would be nice if maybe it was a bit more sluggish and took an average of the sensor instead of the bucking it will do at half speed. After using it a while you will learn to not to depend on the hand break for much more than holding it in place on a curb. It locks the back wheel up, and feels more like putting a moving car into park than using its breaks. Stepping down on the back wheel has more control, and you get used to it. It lacks weatherproofing, or basically anything that might keep it working or workable after getting damp.. The slick wheels would be completely useless on damp roads anyhow.
I like it; it is a very reliable 7 miles. It cruises very comfortably at the ranges from walking to a mild run, and can stop within its length at these speeds. The full speed can probably outrun most people on foot.
The speed adjuster isn’t completely reliable on what its going to run at. If brick or small slab concrete is what you are going to use it for, I wouldn’t.. It’ll rattle your teeth, and probably be uncontrollable at faster than 1/3 speed. and loud, with the spring suspension banging the front wheel back down across the brick seems.
I use it to cross downtown regularly. It folds up nicely for carrying into stores; set it in a shopping cart, or restaurants; under the table. I need to get a better baseball bat bag than the one I use, but this one folds up and fits into a back pack.
Comment by Ken — November 13, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
2000XR+
Comment by Ken — November 13, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Hey All, I’m hoping someone here can help me out, I’m completely new to this, but found the group by doing a Google Search. I just purchased a Go Motorboard 2000X from Craig’s List – mint condition, some wear on the tires and 2 batteries. It came with the original battery (which the guy said could still work) and what was supposed to be a brand new battery (never used). When I got home, I charged the “new” one about 8 hours + and got about 30 seconds worth of juice on it until I went from full battery to nothing. I am pretty sure that I charged it correctly. Just plug the battery in and connect the charger (I made sure that the scooter was off), right? I did this a few times throughout the past 2 days with both batteries, but get the same result on both. Any suggestions? Ideas? The guy who I bought it from seemed like a good guy and promised me that it worked. Is it possible that the “new battery” having never been used, never took to a charge and will never work? Is there a special way I have to charge these battery’s, a sequence, or something that I’m missing. What is my best bet in fixing this. Your suggestions above are something that I just am not capable of understanding, it all sounds a bit foreign to me (kudos to you guys). I read about upgrades to batteries (more power, longer life etc). Am i just too nice of a guy and took someone’s word on it working. I have had a hard time getting people who know about this stuff and or reaching Roth themselves. Any help would be appreciated and helpful. Thank you! David
Comment by David — May 4, 2009 @ 9:35 am
Hi David,
You’ve been sold a pig-in-a-poke, unfortunately. The battery is dead and no amount of special charging is going to make it better.
But all is not lost. Locate a “battery store” in your town and ask them what it will cost to perform a cell replacement on the batteries you have. the batteries are standard NiMH cells that are easily replaced by anyone with a spot welder who can build battery packs, and there are a number of stores in my city that do this work. I don’t recommend trying to do it yourself because you can damage the cells if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Good luck!
Comment by Matthew — May 4, 2009 @ 10:37 am
Thank you Matthew, I appreciate it. i did that exact thing and all we had to do is change 1 or 2 cells…but it also looks like my charger is shot. Any thoughts?
Comment by David — May 14, 2009 @ 9:47 am
I bought two, 1500X scooters in 2003 or ’04 from the original import company in Ventura County, CA …everything that could go wrong with each scooter did, both had broken front wheel axle housings, chunks of hard wheel plastic would break off, both had very short battery lives until both sets died very close to one another, one had a broken speed controller, and also the handle bar shaft somehow bent,
tThe first tech support person was wonderful and helpful. Then the company just shut down, and was impossible to reach, so no support or parts. It sounds like Roth is very similar, and if I buy something for $800, isn’t that enough of an investment of my money to expect some good customer support. I recommend no one buy this scooter just for its cool look. And to say you’re happy with it because you like to tinker with problems, where’s that at? For that money, the product better perform as advertised, not a poorly-executed design that continually has problems. And the tiny wheels are truly unsafe at any speed, under the serious electric torque it delivers for a short while. Avoid this scooter at all costs, first for the crappy support and service, and secondly, because greedy people like Roth who rip off the people who’ve already given them money don’t deserve to stay in business another minute, they are the worst kind of human beast. I felt the same way about the management of the original importers, and even tried to find their store (they had a “shipping from” address for a face to face complaint, but the storefront wasn’t to be found when I looked. It’s a rip. There, I’m done.
Comment by Dean — July 23, 2009 @ 10:14 pm